[chi3]

The nobel prize committee is far from "an arbitrary commmittee" as far as I know.

At least for the nobel prize in physics I know it's peers who decide and I'd assume it's the same for the other subjects, and it's not just "arbitrary people who have PhDs within the subject" either, it's a few selected ones who are well known in their fields.

[Moodles]

I agree that they're not totally arbitrary and there is probably some correlation between broad peer review acceptance of the genius of some work and a Nobel prize. However, there are also plenty of other committees which could award prizes but which don't carry the same prestige for seemingly arbitrary reasons: e.g. the Royal Society.